Jack James' 1957 Buick Special of Norwalk, California. Watson gave the car a flame paint job in 1957. This was one of the only flame jobs Larry did in enamel, and he sanded the layers of red, orange and yellow to achieve a faded or "blended" look. Larry used 20 rolls of masking tape and only one day to paint the car. This was his first radical flame job. After painting the flames, they were pinstriped in white. Larry's brother Dave and Calvin Wiekamp helped paint the car. The flame job cost Jack $100, and Larry was so proud of the results that he drove down to Barris Kustoms to show George Barris his newest creation. He pulled up in the alley and the whole crew went outside to check out the Buick.

Kermit Hanson's 1957 Buick. In 1957 Watson added wild gold metallic flames on the car that were tipped in red and pinstriped in white. Kermit was a classmate of Larry at Bellflower High School, and he used to pick Larry up at Friday nights so they could cruise around together. Larry named Kermit's Buick the "Snatch Wagon", and he painted an XXX-rated cartoon on the side of the car. After a week the CHP made him remove the painting.

Larry Watson's 1950 Chevrolet as it appeared in 1958. Watson decided to give the car a scallop paint job before he sold it off to Jim Becker of Albany, Oregon. Larry wanted to start a new trend in painting, and he wanted to use a brand new car. What he really wanted was a Cadillac. He couldn't afford a Cadillac at the moment, so he ended up buying a 1958 Ford Thunderbird instead. Larry approached Jay Johnston of Jay's Custom Shop to paint the Chevy before he sold it. Jay was too busy at the moment, so after getting a few pointers from Jay, Larry laid down his first-ever full paint job. This time Larry painted the car in Rose Mist with silver scallops that he striped in black. The paint job was a concept he had been dreaming about and experimenting with for a while, and he named this iteration of the car "Heartless."

Larry Watson's 1958 Ford Thunderbird of Bellflower, California. Larry bought the Thunderbird brand new in 1958, and he told a seller at Downey Ford to give him a call as soon as the first car with a tuck n' roll interior arrived. Larry brought it almost directly to Barris Kustoms for a mild job before he gave it a burgundy and silver panel paint job. Larry's Thunderbird was known as "Vino Pasiano" and "The Burgundy Bird," and the first iteration was completed in 1958.

Floyd De Boer's 1958 Pontiac Bonneville of Bellflower, California. The wild paintjob on Floyd's car was applied by Watson. The paint scheme was applied on a base of plum and bronze lacquer. The scallops were in brass-gold and a flame pattern was carried on the recessed rear fender panels. Black fogging was also used around the trim to help set it off.

LaVonne Bathke's 1958 Chevrolet Corvette of Lakewood, California. LaVonne wanted something unusual for her car, so she decided to get it repainted by Watson. By 1959 Watson Larry had panel painted the car and laid flames in the indentation. Later on he re-painted it Lime Fog over Silver and used Orange, Candy Red, Gold and Silver transparent lacquer for scallops, flames and panels. The scoops in the front fenders were enhanced with a panel of chrome tape outlined with white striping.

Larry Watson's 1959 Cadillac 62 Series Coupe of Bellflower, California. In 1959 Watson painted the body in a combination of candy ruby panels over the white pearl lacquer surrounded by white pearl outlines. He applied 1/4 chrome tape over the silver base painted top, covered it with clear lacquer and rubbed it out so there was no step between the tape and the silver base.

Jim Jackson's 1956 Chevrolet of Compton, California. By 1961 the car had received a scallop paint job by Watson. Larry highlighted the front by surrounding the grille and headlights with bronze scallops outlined in white. Three teardrops were extended aft along the top of the fenders and hood. The rear license plate, taillights, and top corners were accentuated with scallops as well.

Larry Watson's 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham of Bellflower, California. This was Watson's personal ride. About 1961 he painted it Candy Raspberry Platinum Pearl. The stock brushed stainless top was left untouched, and Watson used 30 gallons of paint while painting it, and as a result, he created an outstandingly translucent color.

After the Beatnik Bandit, Ed Roth decided to challenge George Barris, building his own bubble-topped air car. While the Barris’ air car was well built, Roth’s Rotar was a little rougher. The XPAK 400 featured no frictional moving parts at all, and power came from two jet aircraft starter motors. Roths Air Car, on the other hand, was powered by two Triumph engines that he had turned on their sides and fitted with high-pressure propellers. The build was completed in 1962 featuring a patriotic red white and blue paint job by Watson.

Ed Roth got the idea for the Mysterion from the dragsters that started popping up with two, three and four engines. Completed in 1963, hydraulics were used to open and close the bubble top, and to adjust the height of the rear suspension. It featured a Candy Yellow paint job by Watson.

Johnny Taylor's 1958 Ford. There is some conflict about who did what on Johnny's car, but according to later owner Chris Yates, Watson painted the car. Chris has had this confirmed by Larry himself. The car was painted sometime prior to 1963.

Ed Roth’s fourth bubble top build started out as a project car for Rod & Custom Magazine. A Corvair engine and rear suspension allowed a low-slung hood. Named "The Road Agent," the build was finished early in 1964, and it featured a Watson paint job and a bubble in fluorescent plastic, made in the pizza oven at Furt’s sign shop.

Completed in 1964, Watson gave Ed Roth's Orbitron a Candy blue over White Pearl paint job. As the car got scratched in transport, it was only shown once in this condition. Roth returned the car to Watson for a repaint, and this time it was given a secret formulation of a gold Murano with blue. The Orbitron was a failure at the shows, and Roth believes it failed due to the engine being hidden.

Steve Drale's 1958 Cadillac Brougham of Torrance, California. Mr B originally gave the car a Candy Ink paintjob. Sometime between 1964 and 1969 Steve scratched the side of the car, and as Mr B was out of business, he took the Brougham to Watson. Watson fixed the paint by fading in a lighter purple color on the sides of the car.

In 1966 Larry moved to Mexico to pursue an acting career with his wife, leaving behind a big gap in the market. While he was away, two "Watson" paint shops sprung up in the area offering custom paint jobs to teenagers that didn't know better. One of the shops, Watson's Custom Kars was located in Downey. The other one, Watson's was located in Van Nuys on Burbank Blvd. Late in 1966 Larry returned to California to open up a new shop in Bellflower. Back in business, he made flyers that contained an important notice about the imposters that had been using his name while he was away. Scan courtesy of Von Franco.

Marshall Tripp worked for Larry Watson between 1966 and 1967. He drove a flamed1951 Chevrolet, and this photo taken outside Watson's Bellflower shop shows Marshall's car next to Doug Carney's 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix in black primer. Doug's Pontiac was was the first car ever to receive a Watsonlace paint job, and the first lace paint anywhere. Marshall recalls that it was quite a trick to it, much more than just taping the lace to the side of the car. For instance how the lace was made to conform perfectly to the body around the wheel openings that protruded out. Photo courtesy of Marshall Tripp.

In the early 1970s, David Mirsky was a neighborhood kid that worked for Larry part time at his shop on Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood, and at his Melrose Avenue shop in Hollywood. In 1971 Larry painted a Bell Star helmet for David. David let Larry design the helmet, and you might recognize the rear end of a woman on the back of it? David suppose that was Larry's personal touch. Photo courtesy of David Mirsky.

A flyer for Larry's movie project. In the late 1970s Watson wanted to merge his two careers and produce a film entitled The Spray Booth.

The backside of The Spray Booth flyer. Watson would leave this on hot rods and customs hoping to cast them for the movie. Unfortunately, the project was never completed.

Watson's House of Style was a custom paint shop run by legendary custom painter Larry Watson.

Larry opened up his first shop on Artesia Boulevard in Bellflower, California after graduating from school in 1957. As his reputation as a painter and pinstriper grew Larry decided that it was about time to open up his own shop. In order to promote his brand new shop, Larry bought a brand new 1958 Ford Thunderbird that he took to Barris Kustoms for som mild modifications. Bill Hines and Bill DeCarr that worked at Barris Kustoms nosed and decked the car, shaved the handles and rounded the corners. After that Larry painted the car with six coats of pearl over a fine metallic silver base. Larry didn't tint the pearl with transparent mixing black toner that eliminated the cloudiness, and he thought the car turned out too bright. Larry thought the bright look made the car look way too large, so in order to fix it up, Larry taped the panel lines of the bird with 1-3/4 inch tape and shot candy apple burgundy over it. With this paint job many thinks that Larry invented the Panel Paint Job. The Thunderbird was the first car featuring a silver pearl and candy burgundy paint job, but before he painted panels on his own car he had already paneled Zeno Stephens' 1955 Mercury. Zeno wanted something different, no scallops or flames, so Larry body paneled it. Larry painted the car in Titian Red and striped it in gold. After painting the car Larry never saw it again, not in a magazine, or at a car show, nowhere.[3]

In 1960 Larry applied his first Metalflake job on Ron Aguirre's Corvette, the X-Sonic. The X-Sonic did also feature Watsons first fade paint job. As Aguirre kept modifying the car, Watson painted it six times. Between 1960 and 1966 Larry got tired of all the masking and striping, and he started doing mostly straight candies with Metalflake or Pearl tops, or Pearl bottoms with matching Candy tops.[4] Larry was kicking ass working anything from 12 to 20 hours a day, 7 days a week. He had 5 or 6 helpers.[3]

Between 1960 and 1966 Larry got tired of all the masking and striping, and he started doing mostly straight candies with Metalflake or Pearl tops, or Pearl bottoms with matching Candy tops.[4] Larry was kicking ass working from 12 to 20 hours a day, 7 days a week. He had 5 or 6 helpers.[3] At the peak in 1966, Larry sold the shop he had on Lakeward Boulevard in Paramount, and moved to Mexico in order to pursue an acting career with his wife.

While the Cat's Away

When Watson moved to Mexico he left behind a big gap in the market, and while he was away, two other "Watson" custom paint shops sprung up in the area offering custom paint jobs to teenagers that didn't know better. One of the shops, Watson's Custom Kars was located in Downey. The other one, Watson's was located in Van Nuys on Burbank Blvd.

The Comeback

Late in 1966 Larry returned to California to open up a new shop in Bellflower. The new shop was located on 17412 Lakewood Blvd., on the corner of Artesia. Back in business, Watson made flyers that contained an important notice about the imposters that had been using his name while he was away; "Larry Watson is not associated with Watson's Custom Kars in Downey and the Watson's in Van Nuys on Burbank Blvd. - And - Disclaims all responsibility of work coming from those locations. To whom it may concern! It's only a Watson Paint Job when Larry Watson does the painting personally." Marshall Tripp worked for Larry between 1966 and 1967. At the time Ken McGoldbrick was the manager in the shop. In 2016 Marshall told Kustomrama that "Kenny was the "manager," although Larry was always there. He was a good guy and knew his stuff when it came to Larry's work. He taught me how things should be done." Marshall remembers that Joe Perez did Watson's interiors while he worked for him; "I remember Watson saying once "you'll never win best interior with black.""[5]

After Larry had opened up the shop in Bellflower, he determined that he had to get his name back on the show circuit,, so he decided to do something completely new for the upcoming show at the Los Angeles Sports Arena in April 1967. Larry was painting Doug Carney's 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix for the show, and decided to do a lace paint job on the car. Ha had never tried the technique before, but Von Dutch had told him about a doily that ha had on a bench in his shop. One day while cleaning up in the shop he had removed the doily, and a beautiful overspray pattern had been left on the bench. Von Dutch dug the design and painted clear all over it. While wondering about what to do with Doug's Pontiac, Larry remembered this story, and decided to painty the whole side of the car using a lace pattern with Lucky Lage Duble X Pattern. Many believes that custom painter Joe Andersen invented the technique as he demonstrated it in the Rod & Custom March 1968 issue, one year after Larry painted Doug's Pontiac.[4] Larry's newly painted Pontiac made it's debut at the April 1967 show together with 53 other cars in the center arena of the car show, who was sponsored by the Tridents Car Club. At the same show he also had over two dozen motorcycles upstairs.[3]

After the 1967 Tridents Rod Custom Autorama Watson he figured that he couldn't get any further, so he decided to sell his shop and get out of the business.[3] He left the custom car scene in favor of a blossoming TV and movie acting career. He painted and striped numerous luxury or sports cars for actors, actresses, directors, producers, or casting directors to gain entree. Between 1967 and 1985 Larry ended up in 141 different shows, such as MacGyver, Columbo, and Mission Impossible.[6]

In the early 1970s, David Mirsky was a neighborhood kid that worked for Larry part time at his shop on Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood, and at his Melrose Avenue shop in Hollywood. David was one of those kids that hung around Larry's shop, that after a while was put to work. He was around 15 or 16 years old at the time, and Larry used him to take parts of cars, prep them for work and paint, color sanding and all sorts of other tasks. He was paid in hamburgers and fun, and he recalls working on Evel Knievel's jet bike, something that was really cool for a 15 years old kid. To David and his friends, Larry was the coolest guy they had ever met. He was a magician with cars and a good looking guy always looking for acting gigs. To David, Larry was who Burt Reynolds copied himself after. David remembers that Larry always had a slim cigar in his hands. He used the cigar like a prop when he made his points. David worked for Larry for a short period of time, and he remembers him as a good guy that always treated him as a friend. Larry painted a Bell Star helmet for David in 1971 that he still owned in 2013.[7]

The Paint Booth

In the late 1970s Larry Watson worked on a movie he wanted to produce called "The Paint Booth". Working for the movie he visited car shows handing out flyers on cars he wanted to use in the movie. For the movie Larry was looking for racers, hot rods, customs, and stocks 1956 or older. The backside of the flyer shows a print of Larry's business card. On that card he promotes his business as "Watson's Custom Auto Painting", Since 1955. His shop was located at 5576 Melrose in Hollywood. On a later business card he had changed the name to "Theatrical Auto Body", Complete Auto Painting Since 1969. The shop was still located at 5576 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood.[8]

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